Austin Wintory Shares 20 Minutes of Music Envisioned for the Next Mass Effect
His eight 2025 audition drafts include a galaxy-map scanning cue and draw on the original score by Jack Wall and Sam Hulick, while Wintory's video explains their musical motifs.
Austin Wintory has shared about 20 minutes of early music he prepared in 2025 as an audition to score the next Mass Effect. The eight drafts include a galaxy-map scanning cue, but none were confirmed tracks for the game.
Among the pieces are two versions of a possible main theme called The Legacy of Shepard, the combat cue Hold the Line, and Something Different, Something Older. With no story details to work from, Wintory built speculative themes around the series’ past. His video also explains the motifs behind the music and how the cues pay homage to different parts of the trilogy.
Wintory said he had spent the past couple of years in serious discussions with BioWare and EA about scoring the game. He called it his career’s biggest dream project and Mass Effect his favorite franchise.
His proposed starting point was the original Mass Effect score by Jack Wall and Sam Hulick, with more physical analog synthesizers and a closer interplay between orchestra and electronic sounds. Wintory said the recordings were made in Los Angeles with synths, vocals, and a large orchestra.
BioWare’s Oct. 21 announcement that it was closing and ending early development on the next Mass Effect puts the unfinished music in context. A pre-production cinematic for a project titled Mass Effect Universe surfaced on Oct. 22, but contained no gameplay. Wintory’s drafts preserve a musical record of an unrealized direction for the project.
Would you have wanted Wintory’s motif-led approach and blend of analog synthesizers and orchestra in the finished game? Follow the story around the next Mass Effect and its unfinished creative ideas through X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.
